A measurement of the polarization of the W boson from top quark decay is an excellent test of the V-A form of the charged-current weak interaction in the standard model. Since the longitudinal W boson is intimately related to the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism, and the standard model gives a specific prediction for the fraction of longitudinal W bosons from top decays, it is of particular interest for study. This thesis presents a measurement of W boson polarization in top quark decays through an analysis of the cos{theta}* distribution in the lepton-plus-jets channel of t{bar t} candidate events from p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. This measurement uses an integrated luminosity of {approx} 162 pb{sup -1} of data collected with the CDF Run II detector, resulting in 31 t{bar t} candidate events with at least one identified b jet. Using a binned likelihood fit to the cos{theta}* distribution from the t{bar t} candidate events found in this sample, the fraction of W bosons with longitudinal polarization is determined to be F{sub 0} = 0.99{sub -0.35}{sup +0.29}(stat.) {+-} 0.19(syst.), F{sub 0} > 0.33 {at} 95% CL. This result is consistent with the standard model prediction, given a top quark …

This thesis describes the analysis of the semileptonic decay D{sup 0} {yields} {bar K}{sup 0} {pi}{sup -} {mu}{sup +}{nu} using FOCUS data. FOCUS is a fixed target experiment at Fermilab that studies the physics of the charm quark. Particles containing charm are produced by photon-gluon fusion from the collision of a photon beam on a BeO target. The experiment is characterized by excellent vertex resolution and particle identification. The spectrometer consists of three systems for track reconstruction (two silicon systems and one multiwire proportional chamber system) and two magnets of opposite polarity. The polarity of the magnet is such that the events of e{sup +}e{sup -} pairs produced in the target (which constitutes the main background) travel through a central opening in the detectors without interactions. Particle momentum is measured from the deflection angle in the magnets. Three multicell Cerenkov counters are used for charged particle identification (for e, {pi}, K, and p). Two different tracking systems located after several interaction lengths of shielding material are used for muon identification. The energy of neutral pions and electrons is measured in two electromagnetic calorimeters, while an hadron calorimeter is used for measuring the neutron energy. During the last four years the …

This dissertation provides a general introduction to Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and laser ablation (LA) sampling, with an examination of analytical challenges in the employment of this technique. It discusses the origin of metal oxide ions (MO+) in LA-ICP-MS, as well as the effect of introducing helium and nitrogen to the aerosol gas flow on the formation of these polyatomic interferences. It extends the study of polyatomic ions in LA-ICP-MS to metal argide (MAr+) species, an additional source of possible significant interferences in the spectrum. It describes the application of fs-LA-ICP-MS to the determination of uranium isotope ratios in particulate samples.

Polyethylene is one of the most widely used plastics, and over 60 million tons are produced worldwide every year. Polyethylene is obtained by the catalytic polymerization of ethylene in gas and liquid phase reactors. The gas phase processes are more advantageous, and use fluidized-bed reactors for production of polyethylene. Since they operate so close to the melting point of the polymer, agglomeration is an operational concern in all slurry and gas polymerization processes. Electrostatics and hot spot formation are the main factors that contribute to agglomeration in gas-phase processes. Electrostatic charges in gas phase polymerization fluidized bed reactors are known to influence the bed hydrodynamics, particle elutriation, bubble size, bubble shape etc. Accumulation of electrostatic charges in the fluidized-bed can lead to operational issues. In this work a first-principles electrostatic model is developed and coupled with a multi-fluid computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model to understand the effect of electrostatics on the dynamics of a fluidized-bed. The multi-fluid CFD model for gas-particle flow is based on the kinetic theory of granular flows closures. The electrostatic model is developed based on a fixed, size-dependent charge for each type of particle (catalyst, polymer, polymer fines) phase. The combined CFD model is first verified …

In this thesis, crossed-molecular-beams studies of the reaction D + H{sub 2} {yields} DH + H at collision energies of 0.53 and 1.01 eV are reported. Chapter 1 provides a survey of important experimental and theoretical studies on the dynamics of the hydrogen exchange reaction. Chapter 2 discusses the development of the excimer-laser photolysis D atom beam source that was used in these studies and preliminary experiments on the D + H{sub 2} reaction. In Chapter 3, the differential cross section measurements are presented and compared to recent theoretical predictions. The measured differential cross sections for rotationally excited DH products showed significant deviations from recent quantum scattering calculations, in the first detailed comparison of experimental and theoretical differential cross sections. These results indicate that further work on the H{sub 3} potential energy surface, particularly the bending potential, is in order.

The discovery that ultra-intense laser pulses (I > 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}) can produce short pulse, high energy proton beams has renewed interest in the fundamental mechanisms that govern particle acceleration from laser-solid interactions. Experiments have shown that protons present as hydrocarbon contaminants on laser targets can be accelerated up to energies > 50 MeV. Different theoretical models that explain the observed results have been proposed. One model describes a front-surface acceleration mechanism based on the ponderomotive potential of the laser pulse. At high intensities (I > 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}), the quiver energy of an electron oscillating in the electric field of the laser pulse exceeds the electron rest mass, requiring the consideration of relativistic effects. The relativistically correct ponderomotive potential is given by U{sub p} = ([1 + I{lambda}{sup 2}/1.3 x 10{sup 18}]{sup 1/2} - 1) m{sub o}c{sup 2}, where I{lambda}{sup 2} is the irradiance in W {micro}m{sup 2}/cm{sup 2} and m{sub o}c{sup 2} is the electron rest mass. At laser irradiance of I{lambda}{sup 2} {approx} 10{sup 20} W {micro}m{sup 2}/cm{sup 2}, the ponderomotive potential can be of order several MeV. A few recent experiments--discussed in Chapter 3 of this thesis--consider this ponderomotive potential sufficiently strong to accelerate …

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 and its subsequent amendments have had a dramatic impact on hazardous waste management for business and industry. The complexity of this law and the penalties for noncompliance have made it one of the most challenging regulatory programs undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The fundamentals of RCRA include ``cradle to grave`` management of hazardous waste, covering generators, transporters, and treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. The regulations also address extensive definitions and listing/identification mechanisms for hazardous waste along with a tracking system. Treatment is favored over disposal and emphasis is on ``front-end`` treatment such as waste minimization and pollution prevention. A study of large corporations such as Xerox, 3M, and Dow Chemical, as well as the public sector, has shown that well known and successful hazardous waste management programs emphasize pollution prevention and employment of techniques such as proactive environmental management, environmentally conscious manufacturing, and source reduction. Nearly all successful hazardous waste programs include some aspects of Total Quality Management, which begins with a strong commitment from top management. Hazardous waste management at the Rocky Flats Plant is further complicated by the dominance of ``mixed waste`` at the facility. The mixed …

When the field of modern publishing was on a collision course with telecommunications, publishing organizations had to come up to speed in fields that were, heretofore, completely foreign and technologically forbidding to them. For generations, the technology of publishing centered on offset lithography, typesetting, and photography--fields that saw evolutionary and incremental change from the time of Guttenberg. But publishing now includes making information available over the World Wide Web--Internet publishing--with its ever-accelerating rate of technological change and dependence on computers and networks. Clearly, we need a methodology to help anyone in the field of Internet publishing plan for the future, and there is a well-known, well-tested technique for just this purpose--Scenario Planning. Scenario Planning is an excellent tool to help organizations make better decisions in the present based on what they identify as possible and plausible scenarios of the future. Never was decision making more difficult or more crucial than during the years of this study, 1996-1999. This thesis takes the position that, by applying Scenario Planning, the Technical Information Department at LLNL, a large government laboratory (and organizations similar to it), could be confident that moving into the telecommunications business of Internet publishing stood a very good chance of …

The FOCUS experiment is designed to investigate charm particle decays. These charm particles are produced by the interaction of a photon beam with an average energy of 175 GeV on a BeO target and travel an average of few millimeters before decaying in the spectrometer. By reconstructing the daughters from the decay, we can infer properties of the charm particles. Semileptonic decays have been used to measure many CKM matrix elements. These decays are interesting due to the simplicity of their theoretical description but they are experimentally challenging due to the fact that a neutrino is not detected. Analysis of semileptonic decays in the charm sector are of great interest because they provide an excellent environment to test and to calibrate theoretical calculation that can be implemented in the determination of poorly known matrix elements such as V{sub ub}. In this thesis we report an analysis of the decays D{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup -}{mu}{sup +}{nu} and D{sup 0} {yields} K{sup -} {mu}{sup +}{nu}. We measure the relative branching ratio as well as the ratio of the form factors f{sub +}{sup {pi}}(0)/f{sub +}{sup K}(0). Using a weighting technique, we further report a parametric analysis of the q{sup 2} dependence for both …

This thesis presents the measurement of prompt diphoton production rate in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV using the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF II). This process deserves some attention for the following reasons. The H {yields} {gamma}{gamma} decay mode is an important channel for the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson searches in the low mass region (M{sub H} < 130 GeV) at the forth coming LHC. In many models involving physics beyond the SM, cascade decays of heavy new particles generate a {gamma}{gamma} signature. Some examples are supersymmetry with a light gravitino, radiative decays to a higgsino-LSP and models with large symmetry groups. The QCD production of prompt photon pairs with large invariant mass is the irreducible background to these searches. The rate is huge and requires to be quantitatively evaluated prior to any of the possible discoveries. In a hadronic collider environment such as LHC, prompt photon signals are contaminated by the production of neutral mesons which decay to multiple collinear photons. The experience of classifying background of neutral meson is very important. The process can be used to test the Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) calculation of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The 4-momentum of particles in …

The author has measured the t{bar t} production cross section at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using data collected by the D0 experiment at Fermilab. The integrated luminosity of the data set is 140 pb{sup -1} and a total of four candidate events are seen, with an expected background of 2.61 events. The measured cross section of {sigma}{sub t{bar t}} = 11.1{sub -9.3}{sup +22.1}(stat.){sub -4.5}{sup +4.3}(sys.) pb is in agreement with a NNLO calculation of 6.77 pb.

This thesis details the measurement of the p{bar p} {yields} W{gamma} + X {yields} {mu}{nu}{gamma} + X cross section at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using the D0 detector at Fermilab, in 134.5 pb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity. From the photon E{sub T} spectrum limits on anomalous couplings of the photon to the W are obtained. At 95% confidence level, limits of -1.05 < {Delta}{kappa} < 1.04 for {lambda} = 0 and -0.28 < {lambda} < 0.27 for {Delta}{kappa} = 0 are obtained on the anomalous coupling parameters. The charge signed rapidity difference from the data is displayed, and its significance discussed.

Preparation, characterization, and reactivity of ({eta}{sup 2}- alkyne)(meso-tetratolylpoprphrinato)titanium(II) complexes are described, along with inetermetal oxygen atom transfer reactions involving Ti(IV) and Ti(III) porphyrin complexes. The {eta}{sup 2}- alkyne complexes are prepared by reaction of (TTP)TiCl{sub 2} with LiAlH{sub 4} in presence of alkyne. Structure of (OEP)Ti({eta}{sup 2}-Ph-C{triple_bond}C-Ph) (OEP=octaethylporphryin) was determined by XRD. The compounds undergo simple substitution to displace the alkyne and produce doubly substituted complexes. Structure of (TTP)Ti(4-picoline){sub 2} was also determined by XRD. Reaction of (TTP)Ti{double_bond}O with (OEP)Ti-Cl yields intermetal O/Cl exchange, which is a one-electron redox process mediated by O atom transfer. Also a zero-electron redox process mediated by atom transfer is observed when (TTP)TiCl{sub 2} is reacted with (OEP)Ti{double_bond}O.

Many areas of research rely on the detection of radiation, in the form of single photons or particles. By measuring the photons or particles coming from an object a lot can be learned about the object under study. In some cases there is a simple need to know the number of photons coming from the source. In cases like this a simple counter, like a Geiger-Mueller survey meter, will suffice. In other cases one want to know the spectral distribution of the photons coming from the source. In cases like that a spectrometer is needed that can distinguish between photons with different energies, like a diffraction or transmission grating. The work presented in this thesis focused on the development of a new generation broad band spectrometer that has a high energy resolving power, combined with a high absorption efficiency for photon energies above 10 keV and up to 500 keV. The spectrometers we are developing are based on low-temperature sensors, like superconducting tunnel junctions or transition edge sensors, that are coupled to bulk absorber crystals. We use the low-temperature sensors because they can offer a significant improvement in energy resolving power, compared to conventional spectrometers. We couple the low-temperature sensors …

A newly developed method for surface structure determination, tensor LEED, combined with automated search was used to analyze the structures. The ordered structures of S on Mo(100) which were studied formed a c(2 {times} 2), c(4 {times} 2), and p(2 {times} l) periodicities at coverages of 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 ML (monolayers, of one sulfur atom per one molybdenum atom) respectively. A MO{sub 2}S-like overlayer, which formed at coverages greater than 1.0 ML, is also discussed. Calculations for the c(2 {times} 2) structure gave a best fit geometry with S adsorbed in a four-fold symmetric hollow site and the second layer buckled by 0.09{Angstrom}. The S-Mo bond length is 2.45{Angstrom} and the Pendry R-factor is 0.21. Preliminary calculations for the c(4 {times} 2) structure did not yield an acceptable fit. The three models tried are discussed. Calculations for p(2 {times} l) data did not yield an acceptable geometry either. The types of models that were tried are discussed. Implications of this analysis are discussed along with results of a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) investigation. The ordered structures on the RE(0001) surface studied have p(2 {times} 2) and (2{radical}3 {times} 2{radical}3)R30{degree} periodicities and occurred at S coverages of 0.25 and 0.5 ML …

A radiofrequency-gain total power radiometer measured the intensity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at a frequency of 1.47 GHz (20.4 cm wavelength) from White Mountain, California, in September 1988 and from the South Pole, Antarctica, in December 1989. The CMB thermodynamic temperature, TCMB, is 2.27 {plus_minus} 0.25 K (68% C.L.) measured from White Mountain and 2.26 {plus_minus} 0.21 K from the South Pole site. The combined result is 2.27 {plus_minus} 0.19 K. The correction for galactic emission has been derived from scaled low-frequency maps and constitutes the main source, of error. The atmospheric signal is found by extrapolation from zenith scan measurements at higher frequencies. The result is consistent with previous low-frequency measurements, including a measurement at 1.41 GHz (Levin et al. 1988) made with an earlier version of this instrument. The result is {approximately}2.5 {sigma} ({approximately}l% probability) from the 2.74 {plus_minus} 0.02,K global average CMB temperature.

None

Modern quantum chemistry deals with electronic structure calculations of unprecedented complexity and accuracy. They demand full power of high-performance computing and must be in tune with the given architecture for superior e#14;ciency. To make such applications resourceaware, it is desirable to enable their static and dynamic adaptations using some external software (middleware), which may monitor both system availability and application needs, rather than mix science with system-related calls inside the application. The present work investigates scienti#12;c application interlinking with middleware based on the example of the computational chemistry package GAMESS and middleware NICAN. The existing synchronous model is limited by the possible delays due to the middleware processing time under the sustainable runtime system conditions. Proposed asynchronous and hybrid models aim at overcoming this limitation. When linked with NICAN, the fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method is capable of adapting statically and dynamically its fragment scheduling policy based on the computing platform conditions. Signi#12;cant execution time and throughput gains have been obtained due to such static adaptations when the compute nodes have very di#11;erent core counts. Dynamic adaptations are based on the main memory availability at run time. NICAN prompts FMO to postpone scheduling certain fragments, if there is not enough …

This dissertation sets new limits on the mass of the scalar leptoquark from direct searches carried out at the Run II CDF detector using data from March 2001 to October 2003. The data analyzed has a total time-integrated measured luminosity of 198 pb{sup -1} of p{bar p} collisions with {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. Leptoquarks are assumed to be pair-produced and to decay into a lepton and a quark of the same generation. They consider two possible leptoquark decays: (1) {beta} = BR(LQ {yields} {mu}q) = 1.0, and (2) {beta} = BR(LQ {yields} {mu}q) = 0.5. For the {beta} = 1 channel, they focus on the signature represented by two isolated high-p{sub T} muons and two isolated high-p{sub T} jets. For the {beta} = 1/2 channel, they focus on the signature represented by one isolated high-p{sub T} muon, large missing transverse energy, and two isolated high-p{sub T} jets. No leptoquark signal is experimentally detected for either signature. Using the next to leading order theoretical cross section for scalar leptoquark production in p{bar p} collisions [1], they set new mass limits on second generation scalar leptoquarks. They exclude the existence of second generation scalar leptoquarks with masses below 221(175) GeV/c{sup 2} for …

Optical parametric amplification is an established broadband amplification technology based on a second-order nonlinear process of difference-frequency generation (DFG). When used in chirped pulse amplification (CPA), the technology has been termed optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA). OPCPA holds a potential for producing unprecedented levels of peak and average power in optical pulses through its scalable ultrashort pulse amplification capability and the absence of quantum defect, respectively. The theory of three-wave parametric interactions is presented, followed by a description of the numerical model developed for nanosecond pulses. Spectral, temperature and angular characteristics of OPCPA are calculated, with an estimate of pulse contrast. An OPCPA system centered at 1054 nm, based on a commercial tabletop Q-switched pump laser, was developed as the front end for a large Nd-glass petawatt-class short-pulse laser. The system does not utilize electro-optic modulators or multi-pass amplification. The obtained overall 6% efficiency is the highest to date in OPCPA that uses a tabletop commercial pump laser. The first compression of pulses amplified in highly nondegenerate OPCPA is reported, with the obtained pulse width of 60 fs. This represents the shortest pulse to date produced in OPCPA. Optical parametric amplification in {beta}-barium borate was combined with laser amplification …

GPUs have emerged as a powerful tool for accelerating general-purpose applications. The availability of programming languages that makes writing general-purpose applications for running on GPUs tractable have consolidated GPUs as an alternative for accelerating generalpurpose applications. Among the areas that have bene#12;ted from GPU acceleration are: signal and image processing, computational uid dynamics, quantum chemistry, and, in general, the High Performance Computing (HPC) Industry. In order to continue to exploit higher levels of parallelism with GPUs, multi-GPU systems are gaining popularity. In this context, single-GPU applications are parallelized for running in multi-GPU systems. Furthermore, multi-GPU systems help to solve the GPU memory limitation for applications with large application memory footprint. Parallelizing single-GPU applications has been approached by libraries that distribute the workload at runtime, however, they impose execution overhead and are not portable. On the other hand, on traditional CPU systems, parallelization has been approached through application transformation at pre-compile time, which enhances the application to distribute the workload at application level and does not have the issues of library-based approaches. Hence, a parallelization scheme for GPU systems based on application transformation is needed. Like any computing engine of today, reliability is also a concern in GPUs. GPUs are vulnerable …

None

A theoretical analysis is made of the longitudinal stability of intense beams of charged particles in high energy storage rings. The effect of externally applied radiofrequency fields, i.e., synchrotron oscillations, is included. For electron and positron beams, the damping and quantum excitation due to particle radiation are also included. A criterion for the stability of small longitudinal plasma oscillations is derived and used to obtain the stable size of intense stored beams of electrons and positrons. (auth)

None